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Sumit SinghalSumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.

NCMH Announces 2013 George Matsumoto Prize Winners

July 29, 2013 (Durham, NC) – George Smart, Executive Director of North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH, formerly Triangle Modernist Houses), announced the winners of the 2013 George Matsumoto Prize during a special event held at the AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design in Raleigh.

The Matsumoto Prize recognizes excellence in recent single-family Modernist residential design in North Carolina. The Matsumoto Prize includes two categories: the professional Jury’s Awards and the People’s Choice Awards, the latter of which are chosen by public voting online. The Jury Awards include three cash prizes totaling $6000.

The professional jury’s First Prize went to Vinny Petrarca and Katherine Hogan of Tonic Design + Tonic Constructionin Raleigh for the Rank Residence, a flat-roofed, four-story, 3200-square-foot, “Modern Gothic” house with a three-story-clear living room and 1100-square-foot, four-car garage beneath that. Located outside Pittsburgh, NC, the cube is clad in concrete and metal and the windows are arranged to recall musical notes on staff lines in sheet music. Inside, in keeping with the owner’s fascination with vertical space, a network of stairs and bridges slashes overhead within a totally white, gray and black interior. The owner’s extensive art collection is displayed primarily on ledges so that he can easily change out the art whenever he wants.

Rank Residence

Second Prize went to Erin Sterling-Lewis, AIA, and Matt Griffith, AIA, of In Situ Studios in Raleigh for the Chasen Residence, a small (1450 square feet), modern, urban house just east of downtown Raleigh. The plan confines the entries, stairs, kitchen, half bath, and upstairs hallway to one side of the house, opening the remaining space for living. The house uses numerous passive and active environmentally sustainable strategies.

Third Prize went to Chad Everhart, AIA, of Boone, NC, for the Mountain Cabin in Boone. The 650-square-foot cabin reinterprets typical log cabins found in the Appalachian Mountains. It blends vernacular elements with simple, modern design, complementing the owner’s collection of mid-century modern furniture, and it models affordable design and construction through its minimal footprint, use of indigenous materials, maximization of volume, and multi-use components.

The People’s Choice First Prize went to Michael Ross Kersting Architecture, of Wilmington for the “Dragonfly Villa.” Like its namesake, the home sits by the water’s edge, its roofline making it seem to be poised to take flight. Two wings housing sleeping, cooking, eating, and bathing areas are positioned opposite one another, joined by a windowed interstitial living space from which the homeowners can enjoy a private courtyard view on one side and an expansive lake vista on the other. Systems and storage are built into thick, hollow, furniture-like walls that span the length of the structure, passing from outdoors to indoors and back out again.

Dragonfly Villa

The People’s Choice Second Prize went to In Situ Studios for the Chasen Residence (see above).

The Third Prize in the People’s Choice category went to Tonic Design + Tonic Construction for the Rank Residence (see above).

Now in its second year, NCMH’s George Matsumoto Prize is named forGeorge Matsumoto, FAIA, a founding member of the NC State University School of Design faculty who is well known for the mid-century Modernist houses he designed in North Carolina. Matsumoto himself served as the jury’s Honorary Chair.

“These winners demonstrate to the public that Modernist design can be affordable, efficient, sustainable, and most importantly, a house to love for decades,” Smart said. “We want potential homeowners to realize that, by using an architect or designer, or by buying a Modernist house on the market, they can have a great home for the same budget as an ordinary house.”

About North Carolina Modernist Houses:

North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit dedicated to restoring and growing modernist residential architecture in the Triangle region. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. NCMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the state’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “livable works of art” for future generations.